Jan. 5, 2010
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SAN DIEGO -
San Diego State-New Mexico Postgame Quotes in PDF Format
San Diego State head coach Steve Fisher
(From the postgame AM 600 KOGO interview)
On the impressive crowd despite the San Diego State students not being back from break yet:
"I was worried before the game that we might not have that edge that we did against Arizona, but we did tonight. We might not have had a sellout, but it sure sounded like it with the group that we had led by our students. The rest of the crowd got into it, too. I appreciate how hard both teams played."
On the adjustments made at halftime after trailing for most if the first half:
"I shook my head at the first seven or eight minutes of the game. We're guarding them and they are making shot after shot after shot. That was a high-level Division I basketball game in the first half, especially offensively. Our goal in the second half was basically don't let up with your effort.
"One of the big keys to the game I thought was that we could not give them conversion baskets and we did a great job of that. I watched tape after tape on them and they run and make easy lay-ups, and then drive and kick it out to (Roman) Martinez for three's. We didn't let that happen. The one time they did get a run out we didn't let them get through and make a lay-up. We made them make two free-throws."
On the play of Malcolm Thomas:
"He's a terrific athlete and great young man who really wants to win. He always wants to do what the coaches want him to do. Tonight he went up and got the balls and was above the crowd on most of those rebounds. That's what he has to do, use that given ability to make plays. He did that for most of the game tonight."
(From the postgame interview)
General Comments:
"It was a tough, hard fought victory against a very, very good New Mexico team. I thought the first 12 minutes of the game was as high-level as your going to get offensively. Both teams were making shot after shot and they weren't lay-ups or wide-open. I think fatigue and other things happened, and both teams didn't shoot it as well, but played hard for 40 minutes. We won at home and if you want to contend, you need to find a way to win at home. I've said this before that there was more stress to win than New Mexico, which traveled here to play. That being said, I'm very proud how we competed, how we delivered, how we played extra-tough when Billy White went down with the high-ankle sprain, and we won because we defended. You feel good when you win and you feel better when you play well against a good team."
On Tim Shelton's effort after Billy White went down with an injury:
"Nobody cares when people are hurt. Folks won't care if Billy (White) is hurt and we don't deliver up in Wyoming. Tim Shelton in a tremendously valuable player on this team and his stats don't dictate how much he helped us win tonight. He's very, very smart, he knows the gameplan and he can follow the gameplan as well as any player I have ever coached. He finds ways to help other people. This was by far his biggest contribution this season and he knows it."
San Diego State forward Malcolm Thomas
On the crowd atmosphere:
"The crowd pumped us up a lot. Billy White is our energy guy on the court. When he went out, we didn't really hang our heads, but we tried to figure out where that energy was going to come from. The crowd stepped in and pushed us through it."
On feeling pressure to step up his play after Billy White went down with an injury:
"I just wanted to step it up defensively, I wasn't really focused on the offensive end. I just wanted to be defensively sound on the court. We know that (New Mexico) runs a lot and we tried to emulate that in practice. I think we did a good job of that tonight."
On being outrebounded early but turning things around in the second half:
"Every game we get on each other about rebounding. Usually Kawhi Leonard gets all the rebounds, so we said, `We need to get in there and rebound.'"
San Diego State guard D.J. Gay
On what this win means for the rest of the conference season:
"(The win) definitely puts us in the right direction. Winning this game was big for us, it's a game we've been talking about for the last two weeks. New Mexico is a great team, and this game just gives us momentum going into Wyoming and probably one of the hardest places to play with that altitude. This win was definitely needed for us."
On if New Mexico showed San Diego State everything it expected:
"Definitely. We didn't really see anything new. The coaches did a good job of getting us ready for this game. We just had to slow our pace down at times when things were going too fast and just stick to the gameplan."
New Mexico Head Coach Steve Alford
On the game:
"We didn't shoot very well in the second half and have to give San Diego State credit. They did a good job defensively. Their size bothered us. Malcolm Thomas was really good in the second half. I thought he dominated our big men in the second half. That and our inability to make shots had an awful lot to do with the outcome of the game."
On playing at Viejas Arena:
"This was a much better atmosphere than (at) Oral Roberts. We're a young team going through a lot of different learning processes and this was a good learning experience. We knew this was going to be a tough place to get a win and we didn't get it."
On the pace of the game:
"I thought we competed hard...we just didn't make shots. We had a good start to the game, but once we started missing shots it affected how we guarded."
On SDSU's athleticism:
"We gave up too many offensive rebounds. I think they had 17, but we had 16. Those are almost a wash. It just seems like the rebounds they got they finished and we didn't."